1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optoelectronic device, and more particularly to an electro-optic interconnect that can be configured for adding and subtracting optical signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The telecommunications industry is switching rapidly from an electronic system to a hybrid platform which utilizes both electronics and photonics to increase the operating bandwidth of the communication system. Today""s communication systems consist of optical fiber networks, fiber amplifiers, optical diode transmitters, and high speed semiconductor receivers. However, there are problems in that the industry does not have a satisfactory optoelectronic interconnect, especially one that can be useful for directly adding or subtracting optical signals when processing received optical signals.
What is needed, therefore, is an electro-optic interconnect device that is capable of adding and/or subtracting optical signals and converting the result into a sum signal.
The preceding and other shortcomings of the prior art are addressed and overcome by the present invention that provides generally an electro-optic interconnect. It can be configured with a probe beam for selectively adding or subtracting optical signals. The electro-optic device comprises a plurality of optoelectronic detectors, each being responsive to an optical signal and operative to develop an electrical signal. A probe laser generates an optical probe beam. An electro-optic crystal senses electrical signals and changes the polarization rotation or phase of the optical probe. A second detector is responsive to the changed characteristic of the probe beam and develops an output or resultant signal representative of the sum of the optical signals. The modulator can be adjusted to cause its associated probe beam at different interconnect sites to be subtracted, rather than summed.
Alternatively, the second detector can be eliminated and direct optical processing of the probe beam can be implemented.
In other aspects, the bias voltage on the photodetectors is reversed in polarity or the electro-optic crystal orientation can be changed to cause subtraction of its associated optical signal. The output signal may be electrical or optical.
The foregoing and additional features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description and accompanying drawing figures below. In the figures and the written description, numerals indicate the various elements of the invention, like numerals referring to like elements throughout both the drawing figures and the written description.